Sheila Hawkins
(1905-1999)

Polar Bears, c.1940s

watercolour, charcoal and pencil on card

49 x 25 cm.
(framed 56 x 32 cm.)
in a period frame

Hawkins came to England to further her career in 1932, illustrating Margaret Brown’s “Black Tuppeny”, published by William Heinemann. She later got a job illustrating for Hamish Hamilton, as well as for an advertising company, and during WWII worked for the RAF in their Secret Records section in Wales, painting all the while. Although she sought accreditation as an official war artist, perhaps as an Australian woman, subject to certain unspoken British preconceptions, she was sadly never formally recognised as such. She moved back to Sydney in 1948, so it’s fair to assume this work pre-dates that, probably late-‘30s to mid-‘40s. Where did she look at polar bears I wonder, London Zoo? She wouldn’t have been the only artist finding inspiration there - thinking specifically of Elsie Henderson (1880-1967).